


Before It Ended

by plumtrees



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, POV Second Person, Revolution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-20 18:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3660003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumtrees/pseuds/plumtrees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>“Do you still remember what the world was like, before it ended?”</p>
</blockquote><p>Love was never meant to flourish in this environment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Side Kasamatsu Yukio

“Do you still remember what the world was like, before it ended?” A red-haired man, with all the air and charisma of royalty, asks all of you. He stands at the center, alongside six others (one woman, and five other men), their bright shocks of hair an almost symbolic rainbow of hope amongst the backdrop of corpses, ash, and hellfire.

You try to scour your memories, but all that come to you are brief flashes of a rebellion that you have somehow survived up until this moment. You glance around the room, and most people’s eyes are damp and distant, lost in a moment known only to them.

You decide that since you don’t remember any of it, then it probably wasn’t worth remembering.

-

His name is Akashi Seijuurou, and behind him rallies the ragtag forces of the once-proud people of Kaijou. You think these rebels are worthier to bear the name Kaijou that those who stayed and remained subservient to a false king.

You realize you are actually the _last_ to be recruited. It is to be expected, given that Kaijou was one of the areas where the Teikou Army's forces were stronger. You look around at the crowd, seeing the sigils of Touou, Yousen, Rakuzan, Shuutoku, even Seirin, among the rags that decorate the walls.

He takes his place at the center once again, this time elevated by a podium instead of a pile of rubble. It does not escape your notice that as soon as he opens his mouth, the entire hall falls silent.

If you didn’t believe he was the rightful king before, then you definitely believed it now.

-

The first time you meet Imayoshi is when he almost dies fixing your mistake.

You had miscalculated. One of the bombs went off earlier than expected, and all the succeeding charges soon followed. Everyone else rushed to get out (and succeeded, at least), and despite the chaos, you counted the explosions in your head and realized it was one less than what you were expecting.

The final charge, attached to the main gas pipeline of the building, hadn’t gone off. 

You didn’t have time to curse your luck. The first three bombs were designed to close off the more obvious exits, but you left a viable exit open just for emergencies like this. Before you can get to it, you hear an explosion, and suddenly your lungs are flooded with smoke and heat. Your eyes tear up and a wave of coughs overcomes you. You couldn’t see a thing.

Just when you finally accepted that this is where you die, _someone_ grabs you around the waist and hoists you over his shoulder. You cling onto him on instinct, and the sound of glass shattering and the pain of shards catching on your skin alerts you to the fact that you and your rescuer have just jumped out a window.

First thing you know, you can breathe again. Second, you are falling.

You land on his chest and he takes the brunt of the fall on the concrete. You hear a crack, and you scramble away from him only to fall into another set of arms. You think you can hear someone barking out orders but everything is spinning and you can’t even hear yourself think. You struggle but the arms held tight, and everything goes black.

-

He is laid out on the bed next to you, and you get up immediately, ignoring the protests of the pink-haired girl next to you.

You almost leap out of the bed in your hurry, and you reach under him to probe at the back of his neck, where you could feel the bumps and dips of the two vertebrae just at the base of his skull. Your fingers travel down, pressing harder as they went, to feel the curved cluster of bone. Smooth. Unbroken.

You wonder why you checked, why you panicked. It doesn’t even occur to you that grey eyes are open and looking straight at you. His eyes are shining with amusement and you only realize your hand is still extended when he pulls it in a handshake.

“Good morning, beautiful.”

-

After you got over the initial shock (and after the initial urge to kick his face in subsides), he introduces himself as Imayoshi Shouichi of Touou.

Saving your life at the risk of his own aside, you think he is an insufferable asshole.

-

If almost-dying for a total stranger hasn’t filled you in on how lacking Imayoshi’s sense of self-preservation is, the sheer number of times he’s in the infirmary will. 

The fact that you find yourself in there roughly the same number of times as him doesn’t help your case either.

“Do you have a family? Parents? Siblings?”

“No.”

“ _Did_ you have a family?”

Unfortunately, that meant a lot of idle chatter. There wasn’t much to do when you’re recovering from broken ribs and bullet wounds, after all. You shift until you’re facing away from the room’s other occupant, but Imayoshi isn’t deterred in the slightest.

“I had a family once. Well, it wasn’t much of a family, just me and my fathe––mmph!”

“I’m trying to sleep. Stop talking.”

There is rustling, and a mock-offended huff. “You’re so mean.”

You close your eyes, reveling in your temporary triumph, and it lasts up until he throws the pillow right back at you.

-

Imayoshi continues to make passes at you, from acts bordering on sexual harassment to genuine attempts at deep conversation. Everyone found it amusing. Something to lighten the perpetually heavy atmosphere, and for reasons you cannot fathom, the punchline of the joke was always how you would turn him down.

After a particularly successful raid, Kise runs out from the platform to greet you all and offer his praises. His arms are around your shoulders and his face is too close, but you think nothing of it, because Kise had always been so affectionate.

You were about to kick Kise off yourself, but suddenly his weight is no longer there, and you hear the high note of a blade being unsheathed.

“Hands off,” Imayoshi hissed, eyes curved into slits and grin as sharp as the blade he now has pressed against Kise's throat. When had he gotten here?

Kise doesn't look the least bit scared; in fact, he looks like something had just finally dawned on him. He steps back, hands raised in surrender, and walks away.

Imayoshi turns to you and the smile is gone from his face. You start to wonder when it stopped being a joke.

-

Your hand is bleeding. A trophy from when you carelessly halted a sword in its path with your bare hands. In the panic of a fight, sometimes common sense is abandoned in favour of instinct. You remember Midorima yelling at you while he rushed to stitch up your hand (though at the time, his voice sounded like it was coming from underwater. You blame it on the blood loss).

You wake up to find that you couldn’t move your fingers, but that was only because your hand had been wrapped up too tightly. All your motor functions were fine and available for your use, but nevertheless, a scar would probably be there until you die (Momoi-san said that it wouldn’t be noticeable in ten or so years, but you highly doubt you’ll live that long).

Imayoshi is waiting right outside the infirmary when you are released, and he is more furious than you ever remember him being.

“Why the _fuck_ did you do that?” He hisses, when he finally has you pressed up against the wall. “What sword was meant for _me_ , you could have _lost your fucking hand_ if Aomine didn’t shoot when he did!”

Rage fuels you enough to push him off. You yell at him for being a hypocrite. For thinking that it’s perfectly fine if he sacrifices himself for other people but it’s unacceptable for other people to do the same for him. He doesn’t speak to you for days afterward and you avoid your usual spots if only to keep from running into him.

The wound wasn’t particularly painful, but it was bothersome. Even the slightest twitch of your fingers pulled at the stitches. The first time you tried redressing the wound yourself, you accidentally popped a stitch. From then on you were under strict orders from Midorima to visit the infirmary every morning to get the bandages changed.

You show up in the infirmary and Imayoshi is there. Momoi-san and Midorima were occupied, and he had just finished wrapping up a brunette’s arm in a sling. Imayoshi sends him away with a pat on his uninjured shoulder (after the brunette bowed and apologized around 20 times) and looks around the room.

You expect him to bypass you, but he pulls his chair up in front of you and takes your injured hand.

He is gentle, so much so that it almost irritates you, but before you pull your arm away, you see his face: the furrow between his brows, the absence of his usual grin, the clench of his jaw.

You sit quietly and allow him his penance.

-

Later, in the relative safety of your bed, Imayoshi whispers apologies against your bandaged hand, nuzzling against it reverently and pressing kisses against the gauze.

Sometime in the night, it is no longer your hand he is kissing but your lips.

\- 

He was not the most pleasant of bed partners. While his sexual prowess had yet to be seen, the actual _sleeping_ part was quite an adventure. He would move and rustle the sheets, snore occasionally, and vocalize snippets of conversations from his dreams. 

Usually you would just move back to your own room, but your recent activities and the day prior have left you lethargic, and you settle for just shielding yourself from the barrage of flails and kicks with three pillows, making sure your injured hand was well out of harm’s way.

Imayoshi shifts again, and this time his movements cause him to bump his head against your arm. He stays that way for quite a while, and you peek out from one of the pillow to peer at him.

His eyebrows are furrowed, sweat beading on his forehead. You wonder if he is reliving a memory or if he's stuck in the throes of a nightmare.

It's not a good look for him, you think. Your fingers reach out to brush against his forehead, ironing out the lines that marred his face. He relaxes under your hand, mumbles being reduced to calm breaths. Your gentle touches soon cease, and he begins to move again.

Imayoshi opens his eyes and blinks a few times to clear his vision. His hair is mussed, and before you know it, your fingers are running through the tresses, smoothing them into near-neatness.

He looks up at you like he’s not entirely sure what to do now, and you think you’re looking at him the exact same way.

-

You think that Midorima just works extra hard to keep you both alive because all his time spent patching you back up would be a waste if you died on his watch. You have been lucky so far, and you hope that luck will hold out, for both you and Imayoshi. 

“Come back alive,” you whisper against his lips, after you part, gasping for air. You hate missions when you’re not out there with him. There was nothing more nerve-wracking that having to sit here and wait, not knowing.

Mischief lights up his eyes and that god-awful grin spreads across his face. “What’s in it for me?”

You scoff and push him away, mood completely ruined. “On a second thought, just save the enemy the trouble and go shove a grenade up your ass.”

Imayoshi gives a low whistle as he saunters out of reach. “Kinky, but hey, I’m willing to try anything at least once.”

If it weren’t for Akashi suddenly rounding the corner, your leg would’ve shot out for some long overdue ass-kicking.

Imayoshi mockingly salutes Akashi when he moves to stand next to him in the elevator. Akashi simply presses the button to close the doors.

Before the elevator doors closed fully, Imayoshi catches your eye, and the devious bastard blows you a kiss.

Your blush worsens when you realize that _Akashi Sejuurou_ had seen the whole thing.

-

When he _does_ come back that night, you are waiting in his bed. You divest each other of your clothes and he lets you take him into your arms. You lay kisses on him and worship his body with your mouth until he’s begging and leaking and completely coming apart under your tongue.

He sleeps soundly that night, breathing evenly and completely still. You let the steady beating of his heart lull you to sleep.

-

“When we first met, you were going to tell me about your family.”

Shouichi looks down on you, settled comfortably with your chin resting on his chest. “Where are they now?”

He gives you a wry smile. “Where dead people go, wherever that is.”

Your eyes widen and you get up off him. You struggle for words as he sits up, but all you have is “What happened?”

Shouchi's eyes are completely hidden behind his lids now, and you know that smile had always been a defense mechanism, because his eyes show too much. “We were the last kingdom to be taken. Even though Touou was relatively small, the Teikou Army had a lot of use for us because we could mine and forge weapons for them. Frankly, if they'd treated us a bit nicer, we might've willingly worked for them.”

You nod, understanding. The Teikou Army was known for being ruthless, stripping every kingdom of their natural resources for their own gain, running the inhabitants ragged like they were the lowest of slaves, undeserving of rest and food.

“A lot of the rebels would meet deep into the mines at night,” he continued. “People from Touou can walk around at night without needing torches, y’know that? All that time spent in the mines made us pretty good at maneuvering around in the dark.”

Suddenly, the smile slips off his face. “But one of ‘em ratted everyone out. Told the Army the names of every single person involved in the rebellion in Touou, and the next day, no warning, they just started burning houses down. Even the houses of those who weren’t involved, just to teach everyone a lesson and to make people mad at the rebels. They hunted down every single rebel and their family members and publicly executed them.”

The same thing had happened to Kaijou, you remember from your father's stories. No warning, no mercy. They had only known that punishment was upon them when it came on black horses, burning everything in its path and leaving a river of blood in its wake.

“My dad hid me in the mines. We lived right next to it, y’see. Told me to run, first chance I got, but I was so scared. Didn't come out for days. Then I ran, ran until I passed out, and that was when Hanamiya found me.”

You stiffen at the fondness that laced Shouichi’s voice when he said that name.

“He took me with him, brought me to the rebel base in Kirisaki Daiichi. Taught me how to fight, to kill, to survive. Their methods were dirtier than most but at least they were still fighting against the Army.”

Shouichi’s eyes open just until his eyes were barely visible, like he wasn’t looking at you, but at someone else. You don’t know why you ask, but you do anyway. “Was Hanamiya your…” 

“Yeah,” Shouichi answers simply. “He was.”

-

During your weaker moments, you look back at a night underneath a sky littered with stars. You remember Shouichi taking your scarred hand, eyes alight with hope for a possible future for you and him.

You wonder if it was a mistake to pull your hand back. You wonder if, instead of kissing him to make up for rejecting him at all, you should have kissed him after you smiled in elation and said yes until laughter overcame you.

Shouichi looks across from you and draws you close, pressing lips against the top of your head.

“I don’t regret staying,” Shouichi says, hands gently curling around your body like its done so many times before. “It’s not a long, happy, peaceful life in a countryside I want, Yukio. It’s a life with _you_ and if that means having to live the rest of it dodging bullets, then I’d gladly take it.”

-

You always thought that Shouichi would go out in a blaze of glory; fighting until the very end and driven to drag as many of their enemies down with him.

Not sluggishly bleeding out from several bullet wounds.

You whisper words of encouragement, half of which you aren’t even sure makes sense, but you blame it on the fact that are also bleeding out. When the pain finally stops registering and you can’t even feel your tongue let alone manipulate it to form words, you think _it’s okay, at least we’ll die together, please don’t leave me, you said you'd live for me._

It is unlike you to be so selfish, but then again, Shouichi never was a good influence on you.

-

You weren’t even conscious when Shouichi dies.

It was Momoi-san who breaks the news to you when you wake up (you wonder what she did wrong to be burdened with this job).

You swallow the lump in your throat, and even then your voice cracks as you ask her where he is, because you think you already know the answer.

When she shakes her head, you close your eyes and turn away.

You’ve seen it happen, once. After a particularly rough fight, the medics were stretched thin, and still there were a lot of injured who were unattended. You decided to make yourself useful, since all you had was a broken arm. Midorima’s shouting caught your attention though. You see him and he was drenched in blood up to his elbow. The body under his hands was no longer moving, and you don't think you've ever seen the green-haired doctor so distraught before.

One of the medics wheeled out the dead body. A few minutes later he came back, stretcher empty.

You didn’t think anything of it at the time. You’re trying to adopt the same mindset right now: _We have no space for dead bodies. What use do we have for graves or memorials?_ but you’re failing, because the man on the stretcher now has a face and a name and he’s _Shouichi_ and you don’t even know what happened to his body.

You’re crying before it even finishes registering, and when you finally calm down you realize you are alone.

-

You stop Akashi in the hallway and request to join the next group assigned to take down another power plant.

He looks at you with cold eyes, but in them you see an undercurrent of understanding. There is no trace of sympathy, and for that you are grateful.

He nods, and continues walking. You can feel Kise's eyes on you as he passes, but you ignore him.

-

You catch sight of the central power core, its glow near-blinding. It is the last thing you will ever see.

_“Do you remember what the world was like, before it ended?”_

Yes, you think. You remember the stars. You remember the nights you finally felt alive. You remember Imayoshi Shouichi. 

When you pull the trigger, everything explodes in a violent cloud of red and orange.


	2. Side Imayoshi Shouichi

Usually Hanamiya doesn’t even have to finish his order and you would be rushing to finish it, because that’s how alike you two think. But this is the second time he’s said it and you’re still shaking you’re head because you _can’t_.

“You stupid idiot, the horse can run faster if there’s only one rider!”

You cut him off with of angry words of your own. You tell him that you’re going to make it, that you’re going to escape, that you’re _going to live, goddammit_. 

But Hanamiya is silent, and you’re turning to look at him because you need to make sure that Hanamiya’s seriously not considering it…

“I’m going,” he says, and his face is oddly calm, and that sends ice coursing through your veins, “to where dead people go. Wherever that is.”

He grabs a fistful of your hair and forces you close.

“And if I see you there too soon, I’ll fucking kill you, you hear?” He whispers, and smashes your lips together in a violent kiss.

His fingers are clenching oddly tight against your front, and you realize too late what he is doing. 

There is a sharp pain, and then nothing.

-

“Kirisaki Daiichi fought well.” He began, and it makes you want to rip him apart because how the fuck would _he_ know. “I deeply regret that we did not arrive in time to save them.”

More scathing insults bubble from your throat, ready to be unleashed, but you continue to choke up as the tears become harder and harder to hold back.

Hanamiya, that little _bitch_ , had used the kiss as a distraction to tie the reins around your belt loops. Then knocked you out and left you to be found by Akashi fucking Seijuurou and his little Rainbow Brigade.

Speaking of, he was still here, staring at you with those blazing red eyes, clearly not intending to give up even after you’ve proven to be uncooperative. You are prepared to yell at him to leave you the fuck alone, but his next words render you speechless.

“Fight with us,” he says. “Avenge the deaths of your comrades, and ensure that they didn’t die fighting for a dream that will never be realized.”

You may think he is a cocky, self-entitled brat, but you admit that he has a way with words, and is quite possibly the only hope of a crumbling nation.

-

You eventually become one of Akashi’s most cunning soldiers, but you were definitely not his most obedient.

Aomine had made the call to fall back, ready to give this up as a failed operation, but you knew that you could shoot the bomb from a safe distance and still manage to get out safely. You at least have the courtesy to tell him your intentions before sprinting away, and he doesn’t stop you, because he knows it would be stupid to even try. 

You retrace your steps to the main weapon, the bomb attached to the main gas pipeline, meant to take the whole building down. You are a considerable distance away but still you see: the counter is dead. Wasting no time, you aim, pull the trigger, then _run_.

You turn the corner and avoid the wave of heat that eradicates the main hall. Your Touou roots help you navigate through the smoke and soot-darkened corridors, and right ahead you see your chance at escape: the windows. 

It was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, but just at the edge of your vision you catch sight of a figure, hunched up and shaking with coughs, bearing the Kaijou crest on his shoulder.

You didn’t have time to think, not that you could even think straight in the first place, given the lack of oxygen. So you just do the very first thing that comes to mind.

As you grab him around the waist, you see a flash of grey-blue, right before you smash through a window.

-

You woke up to the feeling of someone pressing fingers against the back of your neck. They weren’t even being gentle. You open your eyes, a thinly-veiled insult prepared on your tongue, only to wake up to the most beautiful shade of grey-blue you’ve ever seen.

 _Those eyes are even prettier in broad daylight,_ because really, while Touou natives could see in the dark, a gem was still prettiest when viewed in perfect lighting.

Apparently, the owner of those eyes was also the owner of the hand poking at your nape, and he pulls away slightly when he finally realizes you’re awake. You do not let that hand go for too long, grabbing it between yours.

The beauty chokes and sputters and blushes scarlet, and you think he looks absolutely adorable when he’s this flustered. You lay the charm on even thicker by pressing a kiss to his knuckles.

-

He introduces himself as Kasamatsu Yukio of Kaijou when his blush finally dies down (you think it’s a shame, he looked rather cute with it).

It’s nothing too uncommon, you openly flirting with people. It just so happened that you turned your attention to _this_ one because hey, he’s pretty good looking, and he was just _so_ fun to tease. The fact that he had a fine ass and gorgeous eyes was just a nice bonus.

For weeks, it was all fun and games to you, up until the point where you turned that corner and saw Kise’s face barely an inch away from his.

-

 _Press down to stop the bleeding!_ Midorima yells _again_ and you’re pressing as hard as you can without risking anymore pain to Kasamatsu. His face was scrunched up in agony as Midorima worked to close up the wound.

Your hands are shaking _blood, blood, they’re covered in Kasamatsu’s blood_ and the image of Kasamatsu diving in front of you, hand poised right in the path of the sword that was just about to separate your head from your body, Aomine intercepting just in time, Kasamatsu biting down on his shirt as Aomine pries the sword out...

_Blood, blood spraying everywhere. Kasamatsu’s bleeding._

-

You corner him when he is finally out of the infirmary, anger still thrumming in your veins, but he meets your rage head-on and grabs you by the front of your shirt with his uninjured hand.

“You’re the idiot here!” Kasamatsu screams. “What makes you think that any of us wants you to die for us, huh? What, when you do it it’s okay but when someone else does it’s unacceptable? Who the fuck told you to be a hero anyway?!” 

Kasamatsu’s eyes were aglow with rage. You’ve never seen him this mad, not even in battle, and for an accursed moment, you are actually scared.

“You have _no idea_ ,” he growls, “what it’s like for the person you sacrifice yourself _for_. So don’t just run around thinking you’re doing people a favor by dying for them.”

He pushes you back with such force that you actually hit the opposite wall, and stomps furiously towards the general direction of his room.

-

“He’s avoiding me.”

Momoi smiles sympathetically as she sorts out Midorima’s medical equipment. “Midorin told him to visit the infirmary everyday to get his bandages changed, because he can’t do it himself.”

Your turn to face her, surprised you didn’t even have to say _who_ , and she has a finger on her lips, looking way more devious than her appearance suggested. “He usually comes in the morning, after his 8AM shower. Also, I wouldn’t mind an extra hand around the infirmary either, if you’re up for it.”

-

True to Momoi’s word, Kasamatsu is in the infirmary the next morning. You stop in front of him after wrapping up with Sakurai, and he lets you redress his wound in silence.

“Can I talk to you?” You ask afterward and when he shakes his head you feel your face fall dejectedly.

“Not here,” he clarifies quickly, and grabs your wrist with his uninjured hand and drags you away.

-

You sit on the edge of his bed and pour out your soul to him, the least you could do for someone who you now owe your life to. His hands are in your hair, on your face, an attempt at comfort. But the rough gauze against your skin burns like a reminder, and you lean into his touch and lay kisses against the wound wrapped in layers of white.

_I just don’t want to lose anyone. I don’t want to fail._

“That’s unrealistic, Imayoshi.” Kasamatsu berates gently, and he’s sitting beside you, how did he get there? “We’re in the middle of a war. We’re bound to lose people, we’re bound to fail.”

You shake your head, and before he can react you grab him by the shoulders and pull him towards you. His eyes are wide as you surge forward and kiss him.

_Not you. Anyone but you. Please._

_Not again._

-

You wake up to the feel of warm fingers against your forehead, a sensation too vivid to have been a runoff from a dream, and your eyes blink open.

It is not gunmetal grey but grey-blue that greets you when you wake up, but somehow you don’t find yourself the least bit disappointed. Kasamatsu is staring back at you, and in that moment you’re caught in a sensitive balance.

You tip the scales by inching upwards to meet his lips, and he meets you halfway. It’s awkward because his nose bumps against your chin and it really is only your bottom lips that are touching, but it is the sweetest kiss you’ve ever had since Hanamiya died.

-

You hated missions without Kasamatsu, but it gave you additional drive to return safely and (mostly) uninjured. Plus, he always got clingier the closer you got to the elevators, and a clingy Kasamatsu was always fun to mess with.

Just as you and Akashi board the elevator, you catch Kasamatsu’s eye and blow him a very exaggerated kiss right before the doors close.

Akashi stares at you for a long time afterwards, and when your skin finally starts to prickle, you look at him, all playful innocence. “Yes, your Highness?”

He lets the title slide, if his (lack of) expression is anything to go by, but he averts his gaze.

“Be careful,” is all he says. The elevator doors open at that moment, and he steps out.

-

When you get back, he is already waiting for you, his naked body visible to you in the darkness. His tongue slides along aching muscles and scars old and new, soothing better than any salve Midorima can come up with.

Nothing haunts you that night, and when you open your eyes after your first restful sleep in years, Yukio is still there, sleeping soundly on your chest.

-

What you hate about talking about your past is that Hanamiya will inevitably come up. Yukio already asked _the_ question, and he is trying hard to hide the curiosity in his face but his eyes are blazing with it, and you kiss his nose to appease him.

“Do you sometimes wish we could just run away from all this? I heard that there are places out there that don’t have any war, or fighting. We could go there, you and me, start a new life,” you whisper, trailing a hand down Yukio's sides. In this moment, if Yukio even gives the smallest nod, you'd whisk him away, you think, fight tooth and nail to get away from here and go to find that dream somewhere else.

But Yukio doesn't nod. Instead, he crawls over to sit beside you and leans companionably against your arm.

“We fight for freedom to honor the memories of those who have died protecting it.” Yukio recites, something like a promise, words he’s sworn to live by. “I can’t leave, Shouichi. Not until I feel that I’ve done enough to end all this.”

His eyes cloud over and you want to see what it is he’s seeing, want to know what hell he’s been through. Before you could ask any more questions, he is kissing you, and you see it as the apology it is. When he pulls away you want to wave off all his worries, but words are already spilling from his mouth.

“Kaijou was taken when I was only four years old. I don’t remember much of anything before the war.”

You hate that he doesn’t know anything beyond a life full of fighting and running, and you pray that at least Yukio would live long enough to see peace realized, even if you weren’t there with him.

And you turn to Yukio but he is smiling, eyes gleaming with pride. “My parents joined the rebels, and they’d would always tell me stories; about peace, about war, about hope. They taught me how to fight, told me to watch over my little brothers.”

Then his smile slips off his face, and something tells you: you already know how this story will end. “As soon as my brothers and I were strong enough to wield a sword, we joined too. They joined even though I told them not to, I told them _I’d_ protect them.”

“They died a few months later,” he says, and there is nothing you can do but wrap your arms around Yukio as his sobs overtook him.

-

There are always close calls. Be it you or Yukio. You think that the devil (if he even _did_ exist) just didn’t want you to die because then he’d have some serious competition over the title Prince of Hell.

You knew the day would come of course, but since meeting Yukio, you found yourself dreading the day, at times even hoping it would come only after you and Yukio had lived a long life together.

As usual, things don’t go the way you want, but your consolation is that you managed to kill the guy who got two shots at Yukio.

Speaking of, he was hunched over you, trying to simultaneously stem the bleeding of all six bullet holes in your chest. “Stay, with me, Shouichi. You’re going to be okay just _stay with me._ ”

You know it’s bad when Yukio’s voice starts sounding like it’s coming from underwater. You want to wave off Yukio’s hands and get him to focus on his own wounds but you can’t even feel your limbs anymore.

“Yu…ki?” and, damn, even those two syllables were fucking hell to cough up but he quiets down and those grey-blue eyes are focused on yours. Yukio’s tears don’t stop, and your heart clenches in a way that has nothing to do with the fact that it’s going to give out pretty soon. 

“No, you idiot you’re going to be okay, you’re going to be fine,” and you know it’s meant to be reassuring but he says it like he’s _begging_ , and there are more words but you can’t hear them anymore. In one blessed moment, the pain seems to subside, and it feels like you’re floating––sinking?

Your last breath draws out of you in a soft sigh, and everything fades into nothing.

-

You see Hanamiya when you open your eyes, and your heart soars with happiness, at the same time it sinks down to your stomach. You are on his lap, and it’s nighttime, the stars twinkling in a cloudless night, moon shining high above.

Hanamiya is running his fingers against your brow in a familiar motion, and it almost makes you want to cry, but after two years of not seeing each other, you thought that’d be pretty lame. So you steady your voice as best as you can and greet Hanamiya with a grin. “Sorry for makin’ you wait, Hana-chan.”

Hanamiya scoffs, eyes narrowing at you in a familiar expression of disdain. “As if I’d do something like that, idiot. Besides, you’re here too early.”

You let out a wheezing laugh. Somehow you were still having a hard time getting enough air into your lungs. You wonder if it’s a side effect of dying via six-bullets-through-the-chest. “Could you wait a little bit before killing me? Dying takes a lot out of a guy.”

He does not respond, instead staring at you with an intensity that makes you nervous.

“Listen, Hanamiya,” well, now or never. “I’m sorry.”

To your surprise, Hanamiya starts convulsing with stifled laughter. “So you actually _did_ move on. I’m impressed.”

“You didn’t know?” You ask, and it is only after the question slips out that you realize how conceited it makes you look.

Hanamiya seemed to think the same thing, sneering down at you in disgust. “You can’t expect me to be spending my time here watching over an idiot like you?”

You give him a wounded look. “Why you gotta keep breakin’ my heart, Hanamiya?”

He flicks you on the forehead for good measure. “Quit your bullshit. I had quite enough of it from all your love crap back in Kirisaki Daiichi.”

If there was anything you were proud of, it was your ability to catch Hanamiya in a lie, and inwardly curse at your inability to even pull him in your arms. 

“You’re wrong though. I loved you, I really did.”

Hanamiya’s eyes soften almost imperceptibly, and so does his voice. “If your little pet heard you now, then I don’t think you’d have to worry about me killing you.”

“Past tense, I’m still safe,” you say, grinning widely at Hanamiya.

You don’t think you’ve ever seen Hanamiya sincerely smile when you both were still alive, so the soft twitch of his lips is a surprise to you, and for a moment you can’t even find words. He stares at you a few moments longer, as if committing your face to memory, before gently easing you off his lap. You _still_ don’t have the strength to get up.

“Where you going?”

“Moving on,” he says, and you manage to turn your head to the general direction of his voice. His back is turned, hands in his pockets, shoulders perfectly straight, as if a weight had been lifted off of them. “We all do, eventually, once we find what we’re looking for.”

“So you _were_ waiting for me.”

To your surprise (that seemed to be happening a lot here) Hanamiya doesn’t turn to you with a glare, but a soft, content look. You only ever saw that look once before: it was the face Hanamiya wore as the world faded around you. “It wasn’t _you_ I was waiting for, idiot.”

“I needed to make sure that I made the right decision.” He says, and he fades out like sand blown away by the wind.

-

You were right there when Yukio dies, and it was glorious.

A part of you is sad, because if there was anything Yukio deserved it was a long life. He deserved to live long enough to see a peaceful world, to meet someone new, to finally settle down and have a family like he’d always wanted.

The ever-present selfish part of you is so, _so_ happy because _finally_ Yukio’s back in your arms and this time you’re never going to let go.

Yukio stirs, and his eyes open to reveal the most beautiful shade of grey-blue you’ve ever seen.

“Good morning, beautiful.”


End file.
